My God! Look at My Gear!!

So, the new blue bike sitting patiently in my shed waiting for the rain to stop wasn't totally an impulse buy. No, over the last six months I have slowly had the motorcycling fires rekindled within. Between my brother getting back out on the road more and blogging about it, to some guys at work leaving the odd AMCN lying around the flight deck and my mountain biking acquaintance, NitroNick, with his toy shed, I have thought quite a bit about the many years that I  spent hurtling around this fine brown land on the back of a motorcycle. Some bloody good times, some pretty ordinary times too, but all great memories to me.

As I mentioned in a previous post, you can rationalise things away. Pretty much anything can be examined until it fits neatly into the pigeon hole you need it to. Of this I am certain.

Here is my thinking from early 2002.

Fat, dumb and happy. From here it was a short few months to denial, then resistance and finally on to acceptance.

Technically, I have only had a two year hiatus from motorcycles in total. My last bike being my hairy chested Husky TE510 (too much bike for me!!). The R1 went to a New Aussie from the Mother Country in mid 2005, so it had been about six years since my road kit had a work out.

Exhuming it from the cupboard to test ride the new bike proved a bit of a shock. My much used, much loved leather jackets were covered in mould!

Last summer here in Brisbane we had many metres of rainfall and ultra high humidity. Leather jackets and humidity are arch enemies as can be seen by this photo of my old Brando style jacket. Not sure what to do with this little number as it has given twenty two years service, but seems a shame to just give up on it. The jacket from my two piece suit is at the dry cleaners for a resurrection, but after purchasing that suit in 1993, I will have to pay pretty close attention to the stitching. The leather looks fine, but it might come apart like the proverbial "cheap suit" if I have the misfortune to rag doll myself along the tarmac!

My AlpineStar boots had been trying to shed their soles for years, so it was pretty much a no brainer here. Straight into the bin with those. I note that my brother had two pairs of AlpineStars over the years and both of his pairs lost their soles too. And it isn't like we were big walkers back in the day! Another pair will not be on the shopping list as a result. Time to try another brand.

My expensive, much love, little used helmet was a bit of a disappointment as well. The liner was dotted with mould, while the neck seal at the back was leaving little balls of black sticky stuff all over my head and neck. Bugger!!

Now, this puppy (an Arai Quantum e), while being a 1998 model worn by some Japanese GP rider whose name now eludes me, has had less than 15 000 kilometres of use and being in bloody good nick apart from the black balling issue, I will definitely be trying to breath life into it lest this return to motorcycling turn into a financial black hole!

Hang on. Isn't this one of the reasons I got out of it..............????

On another note, this is an anniversary of sorts for A.V.F.A. This being the 100th post!! Like most things in (my) life, I wasn't sure where this blog would go and personally I am finding it very interesting , every now and then, to go back and see where I have come from and see what I have done. I am under no illusion as to the insignificance of all these ramblings, but despite this insignificance, these postings are the content of my life and hold true to my very first post.

Thank you for looking in and I hope you get a laugh or at least a smirk from time to time. I know I am having fun. Thanks for tagging along........